No, no. Alfred Hitchcock, the master of suspense, was quick to point out that sudden explosions, bangs, or “boos” do not create suspense. It’s anticipating a catastrophe and waiting for it to happen that causes us to hang onto every word.

I love reading thrillers and appreciate the suspense created by such skilled specialists of the craft as Ken Follett or Robert Ludlum.

Follett has been quoted as saying, “For success, the author must make the reader care about the destiny of the principals, and sustain this anxiety, or suspense, for about 100,000 words.”

When writing a whodunit mystery, I discovered that I like to build suspense slowly and then let the air out with a bang in a life-threatening incident. I offer hints to the reader along the way that a dangerous event will happen, but do not reveal the exact dangers or culprits. I encourage the reader to eagerly start a new chapter to get to the next adventure.

Since I write mysteries and know my readers like to solve them along with my sleuth, I also provide clues to their solution. And, of course, I develop characters we care about. If it doesn’t matter to us what happens to our sleuth or her friends or family, then we won’t become involved and little that we write will yield suspense.

“Oh dear, I never realized what a terrible lot of explaining one has to do in a murder!” – Agatha Christie

I love reading mysteries. As with so many of us mystery lovers, I started with Nancy Drew and the Hardy Boys, continued with Perry Mason, James Bond, Hercule Poirot and Miss Marple, and on and on to Harry Bosch and Mickey Haller, and Mikael Blomkvist and Lisbeth Salander.

So when it came time for me to write fiction, it was natural that I would write mysteries. However, that I would write an historical mystery was somewhat less obvious.

When I considered a mystery featuring a judge in an historical mystery, I was uncertain how to proceed. I did not detect a mystery plot when reading the memoir of the real judge on which I wanted to base my story. Also, how could a judge be involved in solving a mystery? He is required to be objective and deliver verdicts based on facts presented to him—not solve the crime itself.

When I write my current-day mysteries, I start with my protagonist, setting, and mystery plot almost simultaneously. I base my puzzles on real California cases and fictionalize them with red herrings, villains, and amateur sleuths.

With my historical mystery, I focused initially on understanding my protagonist, the Judge, and his environment. In a previous article on this blog, I explained how I applied the values, beliefs, and emotions of a real judge to create my fictional judge.

Once I understood my fictional Judge’s persona, I narrowed down the setting to include the town where the real judge practiced law and lived, Ventura, Calif., and the year 1939. I chose this particular year because it offered a turbulent time for a background to accompany a mystery. I could exploit the scarcities of the Great Depression and the potential U.S. entry into the war in Europe to magnify my characters’ back-story in an interesting and credible way—using history to do so.

Choosing a real town provided the opportunity to research events there to develop a believable micro-world for my mystery, the Judge, and his supporters—and their antagonists. Again, I used history to make the story both more interesting and credible.

Unlike my current-day mysteries, the last element I created was the mystery plot itself, which I pulled from a few sentences in my real Judge’s memoir about two different juvenile criminals and how rehabilitation helped one but not the other. This created the theme of juvenile crime and the debate over rehabilitation versus punishment. I hasten to add, however, that the actual case on which the mystery is based is fiction.

Today’s guest blog post, on the topic of writing a genre you’re not used to, is brought to you by Velda Brotherton.

Escaping the Comfort Zone

Writing romances in the mid Nineties came about by accident. When a western won first place in a contest, an editor at Penguin informed me westerns with women protagonists weren’t being published. He wanted me to turn it into a romance and send it back. With a lot of coaching from other writers I did just that. As a result my historical romances found a niche and are still being published.

But what happens when we want to try something new? Is it possible to step out of that comfort zone where we’re being published? It may well be if what we like to read is eclectic. Should we do it? Those are questions each one of us can answer for ourselves.

A few years ago I stepped out of that comfort zone and finished a horror novel I’d worked on sort of in secret when I needed a break from romances. A fan of Stephen King and Dean Koontz, it never occurred to me I could be published in that genre. So what really happens when we try to break the mold? First, we have to ask ourselves a lot of questions, which are showing up here. I discovered that I had trouble leaving hot sex scenes out of my horror novel. But it was mine, after all, so if I wanted to include what I’d become fairly good at, why not?

When a small publisher agreed to take a look at it, my first fear was there would be too much sex in a non-romance novel. It turned out they liked it, but sadly they went broke before they could publish it. So back into its plastic storage box went the manuscript. And I wrote another western historical romance.

But then people kept asking me why I didn’t write what I knew, namely stories from the nine years I’d worked for a newspaper as a feature writer. Weekly newspapers require that each employee wear different hats, so I did everything from chase ambulances to hold a huge python in my lap to sit in on city planning meetings. Then there was the time I flew with a barnstormer who just happened to be America’s first real space man. Well, you get the idea. Never did cover a murder, though, but I got to thinking that a mystery series set amidst all the characters I’d met and the odd stories I’d covered, might be of interest to readers.

So began A Twist of Poe mysteries. And guess what? Up reared that hot sex scene or two or three or more. It wasn’t long before my new publisher branded me. Sexy, Dark, and Gritty. It fit every genre I write in. The second book in that series, The Tell-Tale Stone, was published last month, and, oh yes, the horror novel, A Savage Grace, will be out from the same publisher in October in time for Halloween.

“Get your facts first, and then you can distort them as much as you please.” Mark Twain

When I decided to write The Judge’s Story set in 1939, I intended to highlight the principles and ethics of a real judge by intertwining them in my favorite genre—a fictional mystery. I realized that the real judge lived primarily in the first half of the twentieth century and that his actions and ideals were shaped by the events of the time, including, World War I, the Roaring Twenties, the Great Depression, World War II, and the technological growth of automobiles, telephones, and air travel.

Therefore, to tell his story—even if the mystery is fiction—I had to relate him to what he was experiencing in his life. And what fun that turned out to be!

To begin, I read his memoir, dated 1941. [Louis C. Drapeau, Senior; Autobiography of a Country Lawyer; available at the Museum of Ventura County/Library, 100 E. Main St., Ventura CA 93001). He filled the pages with stories about his early life when he was rejected both by his step-father and his biological father and as a teenager managed to find odd jobs as a cowboy, mule skinner, Borax 20 mule team driver and dockhand. Eventually he met and worked for a Senator, earned a law degree from Georgetown Law School, settled in Ventura, Calif., practiced law (with law partner Erle Stanley Gardner, for you Perry Mason fans), and became a Superior Court Judge by the late 1930s.

His memoir gave me insight into the man himself—what he valued, how he responded to problems, and how he reached decisions. From it, I determined that, as a judge, he focused on juvenile crime and basically supported the concept of rehabilitation over punishment—although he delivered some stiff penalties in some of his cases. He also chastised the bigoted—particularly those in his community who looked down on the Mexican-American population.

Now that I had an idea about the man, I needed to choose the best time in his life to set the story. I have always been a student of history, so I was familiar with the first half of the twentieth century. I considered the 1920s following the passage of the women’s right to vote, the flappers, and the issues of prohibition—but eventually opted for 1939, largely because the backdrop of the Great Depression and the looming potential entry of the U.S. into World War II gave me a more supportive back-story in which to display the Judge and his friends in the telling of the mystery—which did not involve alcohol or women’s rights.

My third line of research concerned the immediate world around the Judge to understand where he fit. Were his principles and ideals about juvenile crime and its punishment with or against the current thinking in the law enforcement world? What kind of life did he live in 1939—were cars plentiful? How would he travel? What kind of cases would he hear? What kind of sentences would he hand down? In what kind of courthouse would he listen to cases?

To answer these questions, I visited the Ventura County Museum / Library. The actual judge lived in Ventura and served as a judge in the Ventura County Courthouse. With help from the librarians, I uncovered sources, such as, the Ventura County Peach Officers’ Training School Ventura 1939-1940—that provided answers. Then I read the daily paper on micro-fiche for the entire year of 1939—I learned that my judge was well respected and his cases were frequently reported. The pages in the second half of the year, by the way, were filled with Hitler’s exploits and the reactions in Europe.

Of course, I ended with far more information than I could possibly use, but I felt like I had entered the Judge’s time period and could better anticipate his reactions to the exploits of the fictional mystery.

Today’s guest blog post, on the topic of characters – and an interview with one of hers – is brought to you by Jean Henry Mead.

Protagonist Revolt

Like Marja McGraw, I include humor, romance and murder in my mystery / suspense novels, so I decided to interview one of my protagonists, who, after six books, seems like old friend that I eavesdrop on during the writing process. Sarah Cafferty is one of two senior amateur sleuths who hasn’t been her usual cheerful self since completing her latest adventure in Murder at the Mansion.

Author: Sarah, why are you so cranky? You’ve shown good humor in my previous Logan and Cafferty novels. You’re too old for PMS.

Sarah: Cranky? What do you expect? First you destroy the mansion. Then you send us flying off to Texas to escape the killer. And if that wasn’t bad enough, you allow a questionable character to talk us into hiding in a mountain cabin in the Alaskan outback, which is even more dangerous.

Author: I’m sorry, Sarah. I know it was traumatic, but you have to admit that it was suspenseful.

Sarah: Where were you when we nearly froze to death in the tundra? Sitting in your comfortable chair thinking up ways to get us into deeper trouble?

Author: That’s my job. Would you prefer that I replace you and Dana with younger sleuths?

Sarah: Dana and I are only in our early sixties. Not some elderly widows with walkers. We can do everything that younger sleuths do.

Author: Well—

Sarah: With the possible exception of skateboarding and scaling tall buildings.

Author: If that’s true, I think I’ll have you bungee jump in the next novel.

Sarah: Unless you’re joking, Dana and I are taking a hiatus from your mystery series.

Author: What about our readers? You don’t want to disappoint them, do you?

Sarah: Haven’t we done enough? In The VillageShattered you send a serial killer after us. In Diary of Murder a vicious drug gang. In Murder on theInterstate you have a homegrown terrorist group kidnap us while they’re planning to take down the entire country. And if that wasn’t enough, you have a wolf killer cause us to wreck Dana’s Escalade and then stalk us on Gray Wolf Mountain. (Taking a deep breath.) Then you send us to Texas in Murder in RV Paradise where you have me wading into a lake to retrieve a woman’s body, only to be suspected of the murder. I don’t call that paradise.

Author: I’ve got some ideas that will knock your socks off.

Sarah: That settles it! You can email us in Argentina. That’s where we’re going on vacation. If we don’t answer, you’ll know that some other novelist has decided to adopt us and treat us fairly.

Author: You’ll be bored within a week and out of a job in a month. Novelists who are nice to their protagonists don’t last long in the publishing business. Readers want suspense as well as mystery.

Sarah: I’ve got a great idea. You take my place and I’ll write you into some mysterious and suspenseful situations. You’ll love bungee jumping over a crocodile pit or waking up with rattlesnakes. I can think of lots of exciting scenarios to place you in.

Author: Point taken, Sarah. From now on we’ll concentrate on mystery and go easy on the suspense.

­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­Thank you, Jean. I loved it!

Jean Henry Mead is a former news reporter and photojournalist.

She’s the author of 21 books, half of them novels, which include the Logan & Cafferty series, Hamilton Kid’s mysteries, Wyoming historical novels, and nonfiction interview and history books, one of which served as a college textbook.

She has also served as a news, magazine and small press editor, contributor to the Denver Post, and has been published in magazines domestically as well as abroad.

If you would like to write a writing-related guest post for my blog then feel free to email me with an outline of what you would like to write about. Guidelines on guest-blogs. There are other options listed on opportunities-on-this-blog.

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If you would like to send me a book review of another author’s books or like your book reviewed (short stories, contemporary crime / women’s novels or writing guides), see book-reviews for the guidelines. Other options listed on opportunities-on-this-blog. And I post writing exercises every weekday on four online writing groups.

It was, the school administration assured us students, a new idea: combining American history and English into one course, which would focus on The Civil War. At an old New England boarding school there was no War Between the States and certainly no War of Northern Succession. Yankee all the way.

By then, Junior year, I was an avid reader and a lover of history. This new eleventh year English course was designed in my personal heaven. And let there be no question, the results lived up to my expectations.

That high school English course changed my perspective on literature, and on the interplay of history and novels. I loved the way authors could interweave real events with their fictional characters. The more true to history the events were, the surer I was that this was great writing.

But, I had conflicted feelings because there was another body of literature that I also loved, what I call fiction from history, the contemporary fiction from times before I was alive. These wonderful books transported me to those times and made them real. Perhaps best typified by Dickens, who brought to life the pain and poverty of the English masses, by Steinbeck, who dragged my soul through the suffering of the great depression, by Fitzgerald who helped me live the wild abandon of the roaring twenties, and by Conrad, who carried me into the darkness of not just Africa but colonialism as well. These great writers didn’t focus on real events; rather they focused on creating the climate in which those events happened. Of course, these great writers were not setting their stories in history; they were writing about the world around them.

These were powerful novels from history captured the human condition. They rose above the immediacy of the world in which they were written to become timeless. The reader of today who reads this books is suspended beyond time. That suspension of the fourth dimension is perhaps best recognized by Vonnegut, whose masterpiece “Slaughterhouse-Five” begins grounded in an historical event only to end in a paean to post traumatic stress disorder and the inability of Billy Pilgrim to escape the loop of experience which has neither beginning nor end.

Complementing my interviews, today’s Author Spotlight, the three hundred and sixty-ninth, is of novelist Jane Davis. If you would like to take part in an author spotlight, take a look at author-spotlights.

Jane Davis lives in Carshalton, Surrey with her Formula 1 obsessed, star-gazing, beer-brewing partner, surrounded by growing piles of paperbacks, CDs and general chaos. She spent her twenties and the first part of her thirties chasing promotions, but when Jane achieved what he had set out to do, although the money was nice, she discovered that it was not what she had wanted after all. Seeking a creative outlet, she turned to writing fiction, but cites the disciplines learnt in the business world as what helps her finish a 120,000-word novel.

Her first, Half-truths and White Lies, won the Daily Mail First Novel Award and was described by Joanne Harris as ‘A story of secrets, lies, grief and, ultimately, redemption, charmingly handled by this very promising new writer.’ She was hailed by The Bookseller as ‘One to Watch.’ Four self-published novels followed: I Stopped Time, These Fragile Things, A Funeral for an Owl and An Unchoreographed Life. Of her writing, Compulsion Reads wrote, ‘Davis is a phenomenal writer, whose ability to create well rounded characters that are easy to relate to feels effortless.’ Jane’s favourite description of fiction is that it is ‘made-up truth.’